Another day in Frederic as everyone is over in the park getting things set up for the music festival. We are off for st ignace car show shortly. One thing I have been forgetting to mention is that out of the clear blue sky the mountain man has called me twice in the past week. He said he is camped out in the woods by traverse city somewhere. I have been wondering where he has been and haven’t had any sightings of him. I was kind of wondering why he has called twice and figure he was going to ask me for money but he didn’t. Wayne is on his way back from Key west and I didn’t learn till the other day that he has a spot messenger on him so you can follow him in real time. I see he is right near the florida, Georgia line right now, here is a link to his spot and then I will put his new update after this http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0fqAKJH0RqmkezsZJ6XFfDvmWp6toE73l Had new tires on by 12:30 yesterday and was headed north.
Got baked on the overseas highway.
Received a great welcome by the Weston, Florida Rotary Club. They had a banner, they had a bunch of their members come in and they gave a generous donation.
Len Peliotis in the photo with the bike is from New Jersey. We me just below the Arctic Circle and must have looked like a couple doing a dance because as we talked we both frantically waived are arms to fend off the mosquitos. He mad a donation to the ride. He was on a rental bike and was having a great time. When not being bit.
The bike is running great. I think there are about 12,000 miles on it since I left. Besides tires I did have a tail light fuse that needed replacement. I need to keep my clothing in the very hot top box and everything else in the side bags. The temps in the Keys are brutal to anything closed up.
Someone the other night asked if the 650 was big enough. It will cruise all day at 80 – possible raising the ire of Officer Friendly who wants to hand out Performance Certificates. Lots of Officers but have not gotten a second look. The bike pulls hard into the 90+ range when passing and I don’t know where she runs out of steam but its well over 100 mph.
As a lighter bike it really shined on the haul road. It just flew. Charge up the huge mountain then charge down the other side. Never got passed by anything. Seen one of those big horsepower KTM’s but we were not going in the same direction.
I want to change a couple things yet (Bruce – Service Manager for BMW of Grand Rapids is waving his arms now saying – No Wayne – No Changes – Please No Changes) but I could not be happier. I have run this bike hard, nothing has failed, has not used any oil and will have me home in a few days.
If I wanted to ride 175 hours from Prudhoe Bay to Key West all over again, I would be on this bike.
Wayne
Wildwood Florida
